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Dredd - Satan's Island
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25th
November 05 |
Judge Dredd - Satan's
Island
by John
Wagner, Kev Walker, Ben Willsher, Paul Marshall, Cam Kennedy
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this book from Amazon.co.uk
What to Expect:
A floating pleasure island lets Mega City One citizens revel in normally illegal
activities, while the judges watch. Or do they have an ulterior motive?
Review by Gavin
Hanly
Some time ago -
I can't remember exactly when or where - I remember reading a comment regarding
the fledgling DC/Rebellion trade collection. The gist was that the Dredd collections
started with Judgement Day because Ennis was more of a "household" name
in the States and therefore the title would do well there. Also mentioned at the
time was that there wouldn't be a market for something like "Sin City"
as it wasn't felt to be a particularly highly regarded Dredd tale.
After re-reading
this collection I can't get over how wrong both those assumptions were. The decision
to launch with Dredd titles that had been reprinted several times before immediately
restricted the audience from the outset, while the "good but certainly not
great" Judgement Day resulted in a prominent review on Ain't it Cool where
the reviewer wondered what just was so special about Judge Dredd as a character,
because it didn't seem evident in that tale.
But we can look
at this new collection as the first in a rejuvenation of the line of Rebellion
trade paperbacks, fixing many (but not all) of the gripes that many of us had
about the first batch. Firstly, it's reprinting a Dredd story that hasn't been
collected before - and at a time when the writer/artist team is coming off a similarly
successful story in the weekly: the Dredd thriller, Mandroid. Secondly, it's the
type of Dredd story that typifies what many of us loyal readers love so much about
the character and his surroundings. There's a distinct focus on the citizens of
Mega City One and the supporting characters of the story, for example, while Dredd
himself weaves in and out of the tale. Although he helps to bring to resolution
many of the main plot threads, the other supporting characters are given plenty
of room to breathe so that the Justice Department feels like a working entity
- not one that would be lost without Dredd's intervention.
But I'm getting
ahead of myself. The main tale, Sin City (now renamed Satan's Island on the cover
to avoid confusion with the rather more famous Frank Miller comic/film) centers
around a floating pleasure palace being given permission to rest in Mega City
One waters and to let its citizens revel in the excesses on display. As is usually
the case, the Justice Department has an ulterior motive and believes Sin City
to be the hiding ground of Ula Danser, an international terrorist they've been
trying to track down and who they believe may be getting ready to strike at the
city.
The plot unfolds
in true John Wagner fashion where nothing can be taken for granted. What starts
out as a simple terrorist hunt ends up having major consequences for Mega City
One and serves as the ultimate confrontation between Dredd and one of his major
enemies. But as mentioned, it's the details in Wagner's script that helps to rank
him as one of the top writers in the comics scene today. There's the array of
"entertainment" on offer in Sin City which gives Wagner the chance to
revel in some truly disgusting moments, like Denry Pooter swallowing a member
of the audience (the "I don't like it. I'd really like to stop please"
moment being particularly nasty) and the Killer Bowl, where one of the major sub
plots comes to fruition. This setting also is the scene for almost the perfect
Dredd moment later on in the tale as he
shows just how tough he really is...
And this is even
before we get to Kev Walker's art. Before this story, Walker had been best known
to 2000AD readers for the intricately painted artwork that could be seen on the
ABC Warriors or Judge Anderson. Walker received a huge amount of praise for those
works in particular, but I myself never really warmed to his painted style. Of
all the painterly artists in 2000AD at the time, he was certainly the next best
to Bisley, but it never really clicked for me. However, his work from Sin City
onwards is a completely different story. Taking some obvious inspiration from
Mike Mignola (and there's even some visible Kyle Baker inspiration in some scenes)
while interweaving this with his own style, this was a far more successful stab
at comic storytelling. The whole strip is infused with a moody, grimy feel that
really helps to bring out the seediness of the pleasure island.
This is combined
with some excellent storytelling scenes, where Walker is able to illustrate some
of the more complex action - in particular the stakeout at the wild west bar -
where he manages to direct the reader through the action with aplomb. It's a fantastic
job all around and if you were impressed with his work in Mandroid, then you owe
it to yourself to pick this up.
The artwork from
Ben Willsher and Paul Marshall is also highly accomplished, but it's Cam Kennedy
and Chris Blythe's tour de force during the closing "Trial" story that
almost outshines Walker on the main tale. Kennedy is an astounding Dredd artist,
and one I'd love to see tackle a much longer story.
Before we conclude,
a few notes about the style of the collection itself. The matte finish cover makes
for a much better overall effect and the use of spot illustrations in the intro
pages of each tale is more stylish than the versions in previous collections.
Still missing is the addition of some background material or an introduction to
Dredd's world - and I really would like to see something along these lines in
future collections.
In all, it's a
collection that, when read in its complete form as here, can justifiably be seen
to be a classic Dredd tale. Everything ties up particularly neatly and when joined
by three excellent "epilogue" tales it makes for a highly recommended
book - and certainly the best Dredd collection released in a long while.
2nd Opinion
by Martin Charlton
I never read Sin
City first time around. It was just before I started buying 2000AD, you see. The
Triail I read, but the rest of these stories I first consumed retroactively. First
things first, despite the confusion with the Frank Miller series of the same name,
I think Rebellion’s decision to change the name of this collection is somewhat
strange. Like admitting defeat somehow. However…
I really like this
book, for a number of reasons. While the early Dredd books in this series were
let down by strange choices of content (Judgment Day, anyone? Thought not…),
these more recent releases are of a far higher standard; Sin City itself being
a tour de force and an absolute delight, and the Trial being everything you could
hope for after almost 20 years. Although I remain unconvinced about the relative
merits of Reprisal, this book remains one of the best in the line thus far, and
as a warm up for the forthcoming Total War trade.
I also like the
new presentation of the books, spine and all, with the higher quality paper doing
no end of wonders for the art itself. Yes there are no extras, but look, it’s
a high quality reprint of a series of enjoyable stories, that stop you having
to rummage through three years of back progs to find the stories contained. If
that’s not enough, what is?
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